The present invention relates to a method for continuously thermally decomposing synthetic macro-molecule materials and more particularly to a method for continuously thermally decomposing synthetic macro-molecule materials to recover the vaporized thermally decomposed products having low molecular weights by heating said synthetic macro-molecule materials to their thermal decomposition temperature.
As systems for thermally decompose the synthetic macro-molecule materials in order to obtain products having low molecular weights, there have hitherto been known a batch-type and a continuous-type systems, but both of them have the following problems as common phenomena:
1. Since the synthetic marco-molecule materials have a poor thermal conductivity, it requires a long time before reaching the thermal decomposition temperature, as the result of which the processing capacity for the thermal decomposition is small compared with the dimensions of the decomposition apparatus;
2. Most of the snythetic macro-molecule materials contain substences hard to be thermally decomposed such as inorganic fillers, etc. and moreover carbon compounds remain as the residue of the thermal decomposition. These carbon residues have a tendency to firmly adhere to the walls of the thermal decomposition apparatus and, in most cases, it is difficult to continuously discharge them from the apparatus;
3. Many of the synthetic macro-molecule materials become melts having high viscosity in the process of heating, so that their transportation becomes difficult.